TASKS
TASK 1
The colours of light
in natural light (a tree or part of a
building, for example). Now, over
the course of one clear day, record
the changes in the light and how
this affects the image you can
make. Take a photograph just before
sunrise, at sunrise, then again at
noon, mid-afternoon
at twilight. Arrange the pictures so
you can see them all at the same
time. Notice how the change in the
colour temperature gives the same
subject quite a different look. What
kind of mood does each time of day
suggest?"
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
John Singer Sargent, c. 1885
In Tate Britain
Painted at 'magic hour' (twilight) over one autumn.
TASK 2 Realism and the representation of art
There are many biographical dramatized films about painters,
and it is interesting to examine how cinema portrays painting. Find a film
that portrays a painter of any period, or watch one of the following:
Pollock, 2000 (dir. Ed Harris)
Artemisia, 1997 (dir. Agnès Merlet)
Strokes of Fire (sometimes called Painted Fire), 2002 (dir. Kwon-taek Im)
Utamaro and His Five Women, 1946 (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
Mr. Turner, 2014 (dir. Mike Leigh)
Caravaggio, 1986 (dir. Derek Jarman)
Notice what techniques the painters in these films use. Do you learn much
about their art from these biopics? Which of the films do you think best
portrays the methods and experience of painting? Is it important? In what
other ways do the films portray the “painterly life”?
TASK 3 Realism
What are the visual differences
of the realism expressed by a
painter like Velásquez and the
kind of realism we associate with
contemporary cinema, such as
in the film Children of Men by
Alfonso Cuaron (DP Emmanuel
Lubezki)?
TASK 4 VIOLENCE
How do filmmakers visually
convey the brutality and horror of
war? Compare films made during
and just after World War II with
those made just after the Vietnam
War. How do artists convey violence? Compare
Picasso's Guernica to Otto Dix's Der Krieg
[other images form Der Kreig are available online]
TASK 5 VIOLENCE
Select a scene from Taxi Driver or
Goodfellas. Watch it and freeze frame
it at a scene of violence. What are
the elements of this composition?
How would it feel to you, if it was a
painting instead of a freeze frame?
What, to you, are the essential
differences?
Try this exercise with other films.
TASK 6 HORROR
Designing a horror vision
Select a favorite painting that depicts
a horror vision. Either choose one
that has been discussed in class, or
look up others such as William Blake,
Hans Memmling, Théodore Géricault,
Matthias Grunewald, Salvator Rosa,
Francis Bacon, Titian, or Goya or Alfred Kubin;
or see Bacon’s 1953 Study after
Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X
(sometimes called Screaming Pope).
Imagine recreating the painting as
a scene in your own movie. What
kind of camera setups would you
use? Imagine it as an audiovisual
experience. What kind of sound
or music would you choose to
accompany this scene?
TASK 7 LANDSCAPE
Watch any of the following suggested films of
different genres — or choose your
own — and note the different ways
that the visual appearance of place
dramatically affects the mood
and drives the story.
Consider the “landscape of the mind” and how
landscape settings serve as outward
manifestations of characters’ inner
subjective states.
Can landscape in
cinema or art ever be neutral? Why
or why not?
The Last Frontier (1955), dir. Anthony
Mann, DP William Mellor
Kes (1969), dir. Ken Loach,
DP Chris Menges
Get Carter (1971), dir. Mike Hodges,
DP Wolfgang Suschitzky
Eraserhead (1977), dir. David Lynch,
DP Frederick Elmes
The Deer Hunter (1978), dir. Michael
Cimino, DP Vilmos Zsigmond
Beau Travail (1999), Claire Denis,
DP Agnès Godard
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011),
dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, DP Gökhan
Tiryaki
Dead Man’s Shoes (2004), dir. Shane
Meadows, DP Danny Cohen
The Last King of Scotland (2006),
dir. Kevin MacDonald, DP Anthony
Dod Mantle
Or choose a road movie:
Central Station (1998), dir. Walter
Salles, DP Walter Carvalho
Y Tu Mamá También (2001), dir.
Alfonso Cuarón, DP Emmanuel
Lubezki
Las Acacias (2011), dir. Pablo
Giorgelli, DP Diego Poleri
- from ART HISTORY FOR FILMMAKERS ©GILLIANMCIVER 2016
The colours of light
 |
| colour temperature and shadows change constantly throughout the day |
 | ||
"Choose a static subject and location
in natural light (a tree or part of a
building, for example). Now, over
the course of one clear day, record
the changes in the light and how
this affects the image you can
make. Take a photograph just before
sunrise, at sunrise, then again at
noon, mid-afternoon
at twilight. Arrange the pictures so
you can see them all at the same
time. Notice how the change in the
colour temperature gives the same
subject quite a different look. What
kind of mood does each time of day
suggest?"
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
John Singer Sargent, c. 1885
In Tate Britain
Painted at 'magic hour' (twilight) over one autumn.
TASK 2 Realism and the representation of art
There are many biographical dramatized films about painters,
and it is interesting to examine how cinema portrays painting. Find a film
that portrays a painter of any period, or watch one of the following:
Pollock, 2000 (dir. Ed Harris)
Artemisia, 1997 (dir. Agnès Merlet)
Strokes of Fire (sometimes called Painted Fire), 2002 (dir. Kwon-taek Im)
Utamaro and His Five Women, 1946 (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
Mr. Turner, 2014 (dir. Mike Leigh)
Caravaggio, 1986 (dir. Derek Jarman)
Notice what techniques the painters in these films use. Do you learn much
about their art from these biopics? Which of the films do you think best
portrays the methods and experience of painting? Is it important? In what
other ways do the films portray the “painterly life”?
TASK 3 Realism
What are the visual differences
of the realism expressed by a
painter like Velásquez and the
kind of realism we associate with
contemporary cinema, such as
in the film Children of Men by
Alfonso Cuaron (DP Emmanuel
Lubezki)?
TASK 4 VIOLENCE
How do filmmakers visually
convey the brutality and horror of
war? Compare films made during
and just after World War II with
those made just after the Vietnam
War. How do artists convey violence? Compare
Picasso's Guernica to Otto Dix's Der Krieg
[other images form Der Kreig are available online]
TASK 5 VIOLENCE
Select a scene from Taxi Driver or
Goodfellas. Watch it and freeze frame
it at a scene of violence. What are
the elements of this composition?
How would it feel to you, if it was a
painting instead of a freeze frame?
What, to you, are the essential
differences?
Try this exercise with other films.
TASK 6 HORROR
Designing a horror vision
Select a favorite painting that depicts
a horror vision. Either choose one
that has been discussed in class, or
look up others such as William Blake,
Hans Memmling, Théodore Géricault,
Matthias Grunewald, Salvator Rosa,
Francis Bacon, Titian, or Goya or Alfred Kubin;
or see Bacon’s 1953 Study after
Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X
(sometimes called Screaming Pope).
Imagine recreating the painting as
a scene in your own movie. What
kind of camera setups would you
use? Imagine it as an audiovisual
experience. What kind of sound
or music would you choose to
accompany this scene?
TASK 7 LANDSCAPE
Watch any of the following suggested films of
different genres — or choose your
own — and note the different ways
that the visual appearance of place
dramatically affects the mood
and drives the story.
Consider the “landscape of the mind” and how
landscape settings serve as outward
manifestations of characters’ inner
subjective states.
Can landscape in
cinema or art ever be neutral? Why
or why not?
The Last Frontier (1955), dir. Anthony
Mann, DP William Mellor
Kes (1969), dir. Ken Loach,
DP Chris Menges
Get Carter (1971), dir. Mike Hodges,
DP Wolfgang Suschitzky
Eraserhead (1977), dir. David Lynch,
DP Frederick Elmes
The Deer Hunter (1978), dir. Michael
Cimino, DP Vilmos Zsigmond
Beau Travail (1999), Claire Denis,
DP Agnès Godard
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011),
dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, DP Gökhan
Tiryaki
Dead Man’s Shoes (2004), dir. Shane
Meadows, DP Danny Cohen
The Last King of Scotland (2006),
dir. Kevin MacDonald, DP Anthony
Dod Mantle
Or choose a road movie:
Central Station (1998), dir. Walter
Salles, DP Walter Carvalho
Y Tu Mamá También (2001), dir.
Alfonso Cuarón, DP Emmanuel
Lubezki
Las Acacias (2011), dir. Pablo
Giorgelli, DP Diego Poleri
- from ART HISTORY FOR FILMMAKERS ©GILLIANMCIVER 2016